Anger must turn to action in wake of 'inexcusable' waste of public funds

It has been revealed that the Art Council wasted €6.7m on an IT system that never materialised. Picture: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie

We’ve been here before.

Headlines were made last September when stories about a bike shelter in Leinster House costing €335,000 emerged in the public domain. There was fury from the political classes.

Then-taoiseach Simon Harris excoriated the project as “inexcusable and inexplicable”, while then-tánaiste Micheál Martin described the cost as “incredible”.

The OPW was dragged over hot coals, rightly so, with questions put to the agency as to why the project cost so much.

Since then, we’ve seen further examples of runaway public spending, including a Government Buildings security hut and a wall at the Workplace Relations Commission in Ballsbridge.

But all these now pale in comparison to that of the Arts Council fiasco, with €6.7m seemingly gone down the drain on an IT system that never actually materialised.

This long-running saga, which only came to public attention on Wednesday, lasted almost five years from inception to calamitous end, with costs doubling from €2.9m towards almost €7m.

Initial murmurings from Cabinet on Wednesday indicated that the Government, as a whole, was furious, and new Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan, in particular, was “incandescent” with rage over the botched system.

The Taoiseach and Tánaiste were angry, with Mr Harris saying as much in the Dáil on Thursday.

He told TDs that while he had a calm demeanour in the chamber, there was “absolute fury” on the Government benches.

But this anger must now turn to action, and not just become rhetoric repeated in the Dáil.

The Government’s own report into the IT system debacle admits that the public spending code was not adhered to in this instance, with the full costs of the Arts Council project not “adequately estimated”.

The Department of Arts and Culture, for its part, failed to clarify the potential spend in its assessment of the IT project.

The Government should tighten up on the public spending code to ensure that when projects are proposed, they are subject to enough scrutiny to ensure value for money for the taxpayer.

Tendering should also be looked at, amid repeated calls over many years to reform of how State contracts are awarded.

More recently, it was raised by Stephen Donnelly, the former health minister, who sought to press Mr Harris to lobby the EU to change procurement rules to ensure past performance is factored in before contracts are awarded.

While it might be a difficult issue to tackle, it is one the Government can push in Brussels.

The new Coalition must also work towards improving Ireland’s Freedom of Information laws as part of efforts to increase transparency and accountability throughout all
aspects of government.

A review of the laws governing Freedom of Information, which have allowed journalists and campaigners to dig into government spending, must be completed as a matter of urgency.

This report cannot be then shoved down the back of a couch — reforms must follow to give the public an unvarnished view at the inner workings of government.

While there is bound to be more overspends and wasted money, actions can be taken now to prevent them from spiraling out of control as badly as they did at the Arts Council.